


The Days We Live

by TheUnknownWriter72



Series: The Days We Live and the Choices We Make [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 09:25:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12454404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnknownWriter72/pseuds/TheUnknownWriter72
Summary: Detecting a Time Quake in the early twenty-first century, the Doctor meets Percy Jackson, who has been struggling with loss since the Titan War.  Abandoning the life he doesn't want, Percy joins him on adventures throughout time and space.





	The Days We Live

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Major Character Death  
> Begins with an alternate ending of the Titan War, where Percy doesn't give Luke the knife.

August 18, 2010

As he stood in the middle of Central Park, standing between a huge life choice, Percy Jackson contemplated his life and the decisions that had led him to this point. On one side, the Empire State Building and the immortality he didn't want, and on the other a blue box, a chance for a future away from the gods. 

Percy looked at the man and woman next to the box. The man, in a leather jacket, and the woman, with blond hair and a pink jacket.

He looked back at the Empire State Building, where five years ago he had made the most important decision of his life, a decision he regretted. A decision he could change…

He looked back at the man. "You said it travels in time?"  
\---  
5 years earlier - August 18, 2005

On his sixteenth birthday, Percy Jackson stood in the Olympian throne room in the sky above New York. Grover Underwood, a satyr who had been his friend since he was 11, lay crumpled against his father, Poseidon's, throne. On the other side of the room, Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena, but more importantly his best friend, was slumped against her mother's throne.

The man who had once been Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, but was now Kronos, the evil Titan of Time, had fallen to his knees.

"Please, pass me the knife," he begged, his voice becoming that of Luke's for a brief moment.

Percy approached, slowly. He kicked Backbiter, the half celestial bronze, half mortal steel sword that was Kronos's scythe, out of Luke's hands, sending it spinning to the other side of the rooms.

"Please," Luke begged, "I can't hold him back anymore."

Percy hesitated. In the past, he had trusted Luke too many times, which had never ended well.

"Where's your heel?" He asked, carefully.

"What?" Luke managed out, in between heavy, quick breathes. 

"Your Achilles heel, your weak spot. Where is it?"

Groaning, Luke unclasped his armor and it fell off him in a clatter. He revealed his hand, and pointed to a spot on it. "Here," he said.

For a second, Percy considered giving Annabeth's knife to Luke. But as he began to hand it over, he felt a familiar weight, reappear in his pocket. Riptide, he thought.

He didn't have to give the knife to Luke, he could kill Kronos himself. 

With a start, he realized this was the choice. “A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze”. This was it, if he made the wrong choice, Olympus and the gods, and eventually the world, would be destroyed. This was the choice that had been prophesied years before his birth and one of the reasons for many of the difficulties in his life. He felt his heart race quicker, and took a breath to calm himself down, never looking away from Kronos. And then he made his choice.

As the Many Worlds Theory suggests, each major decision creates parallel universes, where a person makes a choice in one universe, but his counterpart in another makes the other.

In one universe, Percy handed over the knife and Luke killed himself, redeeming himself and saving the world. Percy would be offered godhood and reject, instead helping minor gods gain the respect and attention they deserved. And eventually, he would have his mind wiped and be sent to Camp Jupiter, before saving the world once more in the second Giant War.

This is not that universe.

As Percy drew Riptide, Luke lost control and Kronos assumed his true form.

Percy was propelled backwards into a throne and the world became a blinding white. Riptide flew out of his hand, disappearing into the white void. Leaning against the throne, he flailed his hands desperately searching for something, anything. He screamed as he felt his invincibility slowly burn away.

Suddenly his hand came across a sword. He picked it up in his left hand and tried to stand, but found he couldn't. Still screaming, he leaned one hand on the throne to get some leverage to help himself stand up. 

Out of nowhere, a rage gripped him and he felt strength appear out of nowhere. Somewhere in the back of his mind he recognized the throne as Ares's, but he didn't care. Realizing he had to stop Kronos before he lost this burst of strength, Percy dived forward, stabbing the sword in the direction he knew Kronos to be.

He heard a startled gasp, and resistance against his sword. Viciously, he pushed harder, and felt the sword impale something. Suddenly the sword melted into a gold liquid in his hands and his left wrist burned.

He blinked and when he reopened his eyes the white was gone. Everything was gone. The ceiling and walls were gone, in their place mere ashes, and even the gods’ thrones looked charred. Looking down, Percy realized the ground was gone too, and it appeared as though he was standing on nothing but the air itself. 

There must be some kind of magical force field in place to keep people from falling, something in his mind decided, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Annabeth.

Annabeth! He remembered, with a start. Where were Annabeth and Grover?

Looking around, he didn’t see them. Desperately, he tried to search for them, but of course, on a platform of nothingness, there was nothing there.

Sudden bursts of light appeared. Normally, Percy would have averted his eyes, but all thirteen lights combined wouldn’t have been even as close to as bright as had been just minutes prior. Instead, he just felt a strange tingle on the small of his back, leading to a feeling of rawness to spread across his body.

The Olympian Gods plus Hades looked around in shock. 

“WHAT HAPPENED!” Zeus thundered.

Exhaustion settling in, Percy felt the words just tumble out of his mouth. He recounted the story as best as could, starting with him sending the campers and hunters to different entrances to the city, continuing through Silena’s sacrifice, and then finally recounting the events that had occurred in the throne room. 

“-and somehow in the light I found Riptide, and using strength from one of the thrones, I stabbed Kronos with it and he disappeared, but also Riptide was destroyed, and…” he trailed off.

There was no way that could have been Riptide, he thought with surprise. Riptide had been launched to other side of the room, there was no way he could have found it. And the grip, it was different. In the haze of everything, he hadn’t noticed the difference, but now as he recalled the way his fingers fit around the grooves of the sword, it was definitely different from the smooth metal grip of Riptide, and instead had been rough and bumpy. But now as his memories returned, he realized what should have been the biggest giveaway: the blade, it hadn’t been celestial bronze, not entirely at least. It had been Backbiter, it had been Kronos’s scythe. Inexplicably, he looked down at his left wrist, which had been burned by the golden remains of the sword as it had melted and fallen on him. On his wrist, just below his left hand was a tattoo, a tattoo of a clock. He looked away, now was not the time, he’d investigate it later.

Looked up once more, he found the gods arguing with each other. Against his better judgement, he decided then and there, he wouldn’t tell them about the tattoo.

“It’s impossible right? No sword is strong enough to kill a Titan, right?” Apollo was asking

Hephaestus and Ares were quick to argue.

“A well made weapon can do anything,” Hephaestus gruffly argued.

“A strong enough man can kill any beast,” said Ares, at the same time. 

In another conversation, Hera, Poseidon, and Zeus were arguing. 

“He’s obviously lying. He’s your spawn,” she drawled.

“How dare you! My son speaks the truth!” yelled Poseidon.

Zeus scoffed and appeared to be ready with a comeback when Percy interrupted.

“HEY!” He yelled.

The room grew quiet and Percy felt the stares of thirteen all powerful immortals.

“Can somebody explain to me what happened to Annabeth and Grover?” he demanded.

“And Luke.” added Hermes, unhelpfully.

Athena’s stare softened, and Percy saw her the least hateful she had ever been towards him.

“Perseus, no mortal can even survive in the presence of a Titan’s true form.” she explained, softly and calmly.

“No! You’re wrong! They can’t be dead...she can’t be dead!” Percy argued. “I survived!”

Here Hades spoke up, “You bore the Curse of Achilles, whose invulnerability saved you for a short time. As I’m sure you noticed, the sheer power was able to destroy the curse. A few more seconds and you would have been dead as well.”

It was Artemis who spoke this time. “I’m sorry about Annabeth, she was a fine woman.”

Percy felt himself fight back a sob. It wasn’t fair. Just as he had come to the realization that he had feelings for her, that he loved her, she had died.

“And Grunder. I won’t say he was a great satyr, but he truly cared about nature.” said Dionysus. 

His sadness turned to anger and he was about to yell at the wine god, when he says his face. A sadness and vulnerability that he had never seen on Dionysus face stopped him.

“What happened to the other demigods,” he asked cautiously.

In another life, feeling the death of the Lord of Time, the monster army would have retreated, but in this life the death count was even worse.

“They were overrun,” said Apollo filled with grief, and Percy could understand why. Except for maybe Hermes, Apollo had the most kids at camp, and how many had died? His thoughts turned to Michael Yew, the son of Apollo who had died on the Williamsburg bridge. He wondered if his friends Will Solace, Kayla Knowles, or Austin Lake had survived.

“Many of them died,” said Hades, bluntly.

“Nico?” Percy asked, almost afraid to know.

“He lived,” said Hades gruffly.

“Now then,” said Zeus, steering away the conversation. He waved his hand and everything spun. 

The 13 gods and Percy reappeared next to what Percy recognized as a Temple of Zeus. Zeus waved his hand again and a group of demigods appeared. To his horror, he only recognized Nico, Will, and Clarisse in the group.

Zeus cleared his throat and the group turned towards him.

“We are gathered now to celebrate the defeat of the Titans and mourn the loss of our friends and family.” he began, more eloquently than Percy would have thought possible. “I asked Hades to compile a list of the dead.” He pulled a long scroll from nowhere. 

“Noah Alderman, son of Hermes. Jacob Allen, son of Ares. Tina Baker, daughter of Apollo. Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite.” At this, Clarisse sobbed. A boy, Percy recognized as her boyfriend, Chris Rodriguez son of Hermes, draped his arm over her, doing his best to offer her comfort.

“Eileen Beckett, mortal hunter of Artemis…”

The list continued until “Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena.” Percy flinched. 

“I’m sorry.” Percy turned and saw Nico. 

“I’m sorry too.” he said

“What?” asked Nico.

“I know you loved her too.” Percy said.

“What? No you idiot. She isn’t the one I loved.” he responded.

“Wait, then who did-”

“Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus,” said Zeus, his voice steeled.

“No,” Percy murmured.

As the list continued, Percy learned that among the dead were Pollux, the only son of Dionysus, almost the entire Hephaestus Cabin, and every single one of the Hunters of Artemis.

“And finally Lacy Zee, daughter of Aphrodite.” Zeus finished.

“We’re going to send everybody back to Camp, now.” said Apollo.

“Get some rest.” said Athena. Suddenly, Percy realized just how tired he was, and almost collapsed in exhaustion. Nico helped him stay on his feet, and looked at him in worry. “It’s been a long couple of days and the human body can only sustain itself without sleep for so long.” continued Athena. The gods were being unusually nice, Percy thought cynically.

Zeus waved his hand, again, and then everyone was gone, leaving just him and the gods.

“What am I still doing here?” Percy demanded.

Poseidon exchanged a look with Zeus, then began to speak. “A great hero must be rewarded. Is there anyone here who would deny that my son is deserving?”

Confusion filled Percy, what were they talking about? He waited for someone to argue, to yell that he was just a sea spawn - the gods had never liked him - but no one protested.

“The council agrees.” Zeus said. “Percy Jackson, you will have one gift from the gods.”

Percy hesitated. “Any gift?”

Zeus nodded. “I know what you will ask. The -”

Percy interrupted him. “Can you bring my friends back from the dead?”

The gods exchanged glances grimly.

“Dead is dead, Jackson,” said Hades, “Nobody, not even I, can bring people back from the dead. It’s against the ancient laws.”

“But I know you can!” exclaimed Percy, angrily. “How many times in the ancient myths did you say you could bring people back from the dead. Like, when you promised Orpheus to bring his wife back to life.”

Hades shook his head. “Even if he had done as I asked, she would have remained dead. I only gave him the chance, because I knew he would fail.”

“But,” Percy began again.

“Your wish,” interrupted Zeus, “We offer the greatest gift of all. If you want it, it shall be yours. The gods have not bestowed this gift on a mortal hero in many centuries, but Perseus Jackson, you have proved yourself. We offer godhood. You could be immortal, undying.”

Percy froze. “A god?”

Zeus said something else, but Percy wasn’t listening. Other members of the council sounded off their affirmations, but Percy was deep in thought. He thought of the vision the Three Fates had showed him, of growing old and eventually dying. He could avoid that, and live as a teenager forever. But then, his mind wandered to Annabeth. If he became a god, he would never see her again. He wouldn’t die, and therefore wouldn’t end up in the Underworld with her. Then, he thought of all that had happened, and how the war, and the events that led up to her death had happened. Then and there, he knew his decision.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

The Council remained silent and Zeus looked like he had shocked himself with one of his own lightning bolts. “You are turning down are generous gift?”

“No, I’m turning down godhood; that won’t fix anything. But I’m still using my wish. Do you swear on the River Styx to grant it?” At first, the gods protested, but Percy forced them before revealing his wish: that from now on the gods would recognize all of their children and the children of every god, and claim them before their thirteenth birthday. There would never be another Luke, he swore. The gods protested again, but eventually they all accepted.

Percy hoped they would truly follow his wish, he knew all too well that the gods didn’t always follow their oaths.

“Goodbye Percy Jackson,” said Zeus. He waved his hand and then Percy was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Upon rereading, I realized just how dark this first chapter was. But I promise it gets better. With time Percy will heal, and things will better.  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
